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In Reply to: RE: 6SL7 - your experience with the Russian tubes? posted by maxhifi on February 13, 2016 at 17:19:17
I wasn't intending to become an expert on Russian valves.
My experience is more in recording.
After I saw the vast amount of disinformation and nonsense surrounding Russian build quality, I found it interesting.
There is a lot of old stock about still.
I have no idea what was sold to you from Ukraine, maybe the dirt cheap "Reflektor" version below?
Most outfits in Ukraine & Bulgaria are just selling old USSR stock which has ended up all over Eastern Europe in vast quantities very very cheap.
People in war torn regions like Ukraine are trying to make a quick buck while their local currency goes down the toilet.
In 1 year alone the Rouble has halved in value, but of course that just means bigger profits for the Tung sol, Mullard, Genalex fake brand.
Here is some idea of what was available from Moscow & St Petersburg.
Next is the Xpo-Pul factory (also known as Reflektor) in Saratov before it became controlled by a yankee.
Eg. As far as I'm aware, one of the 6L6 Sovtek is the same as the design as from 50 years ago, so I can't see why the 6SL7 would be any different.
I'm far from being convinced this is true,-
It sounds far like just more marketing hype from a company that STOLE the Svetlana name and marque image, so that the real Svetlana couldn't even use their own name.
"New Sensor is an American corporation and since taking ownership of this factory has been steadily improving the quality of current production tubes."
If you look at the price USD $39.95 from one company, and "6SL7 Tungsol Gold $103.06" then I know personally what I think.
The old reflektor version above costs about 1 USD at the moment off the shelf.
That's about 100 for the price of one "Tungsol" rebrand.
I had a brief look at the Russian forums.
The Russian 6SL7 & 6SN7 was made from the 1950s until 1980s in vast quantities.
It was easy to find any number of the Melz ones for about 2USD recently, some as low as 50 cts.
The Russians had their own high quality film & recording industry to look after in Moscow (Mosfilm and Melodia), as well as the consumer Audio equipment centred on Riga Latvia.
Clearly if their parts had been inferior, we should have known about it by now.
The USSR block Lomo and Gefell microphones are highly regarded, but almost unknown in the west.
The wire ended valve I showed you before were often designed to survive 500g and the space & defence programs.
I doubt very much you will break one never mind find it microphonic!
Follow Ups:
Hi. I'm new here. For what I understood, Those tubes I have are "garbage"...
Hi Ivan,
Thank you very much for your overview! I have some experience with Russian tubes and equipment, so I am not totally a stranger to the fact that the USSR produced some excellent equipment. I have a re-build priboi amplifier (75w version), and after some modifications to the driver stage and replacement of the terrible electrolytic caps I am very pleased with the sound. I also have a GZM series Latvian made phono cartridge I am quite happy with on a second system. I have seen Lomo speakers, (would love to hear their theatre systems) and heard some amazing DIY efforts (using local materials) while travelling in Belarus.
it is really interesting to know that Svetlana made a 6SL7. I am going to have a look at the website you quoted, it looks like a great source.
I should note that although the 6N7 tubes I bought are a disappointment, I had excellent luck with the EF86 svetlana equivalents, and the G-807. I by no means dismiss Russian tubes in general, but understand they must be evaluated on a case by case basis.
Best regards
Max
Svetlana no longer make valves.
The EF86 you cite is obsolete.
They now became SED since their name and brand got stolen and ceased consumer production.
that makes all other Svetlana valves that are obsolete.
("Svetlana".com ie. "new sensor", is NOT the same company. I have a strong suspicion to be confirmed, the IP came from St Petersburg for a lot of the production in Saratov.
This would explain rather a lot, once I guess Svetlana SPB became totally p..ssd off! Nothing annoys companies more than having IP and names stolen!)
St Petersburg is still a great city of 5 million people, with a large population nearby with a lot of expertise in many domains.
In Russia they say SPB is the head, NN are the lungs.
Nizhny Novgorod used to be one of the main engineering motors of Russia.
A lot of the optical industry are made both in SPB and relatively nearby Vologda centre of excellence.
Russian optics are world class, and very cheap.
My lenses are made in Russia, the titanium from Russia, made into frames in China then reimported, but still costs 1/10 of the price in Europe!
You may not know this.
Saratov is only 850 000.
For engineering, SIZE, IP, and skills do matter.
Oh, I meant the svetlana factory in st Petersburg and their soviet era production, not
Their 21st century products. Although I did have a set of their pre new sensor EL34s in the late 1990s and was impressed.
From what I understand, quite a lot of production rejects from Svetlana found their way onto the market....
Probably this couldn't happen in the 80s and 90s? Who knows?
It's an ongoing syndrome in any production environment, as production winds down for production "not deemed to have any future", quality control usually ends up going to pot, then a lot of rejects stop being rejected.
Once a factory production line is dismantled with all it's "Special ways/kludges of solving weird and wonderful problems", big economies of scale with certain metal suppliers, then you will never really do it again quite like that.
If you then start with eg. a valve design which came from an entirely different basis and mess about modifying that to end up being something different, with people set in their ways....
Lots of valves were made after the British invention of radar, because there's nothing that concentrates the mind quite as well as to be shot at or bombed, or simply in the USSR being shot for being an enemy of the people.
It's a good old tradition which seems to be enjoying a remarkable comeback just now.
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